What do I need in addition to the UC540?

[leealanmoreau]

Sorry for all these dumb questions, I know they're prob best for a sales rep but I'm getting the UC540 from a partner at a great cost for just the unit itself.  I'm technical, used Asterisk for years but just unclear on a few things with the Cisco gear.

I already have a bunch of Cisco 7960 IP phones and now a few SPA504g.  My setup/requirements are:

- 3 IP phones located in the same office that the UC540 will be

- 1 remote IP phone located at a users home

- 1 SIP Trunk to our voip provider which supports 10 concurrent calls (most concurrent calls we'd ever have is prob 3-4 though)

- Of the users above some have multiple extensions, so we have in total about 8 extensions some 3 digits some 4 (but if all have to be 4 it's fine)

- 2 main autoattendants as we have 2 companies that work under us (so Company A's DID goes to 1 auto attendant, and Company B's DID goes to another auto attendant)

- Then each auto attendant has a few sub ones which are minor, like after hours "Press 2 for our contact information" etc

- The ability for users to have a soft phone or the communicator on their PC so if they had to work from home they can make/receive calls from their PC

- Each user extension needs voicemail

- Ability to easily have calls ring on desk phone and cell phone

- Ability to call from home using a cell phone through the UC540.  So like DISA, calling into the UC540 getting a dial tone, calling an external number and having the call go through the UC540 and show the users extension making the call.

Then optionally call recording would be nice, as would a user portal to log in and view call logs and so on but definitely not required.

So from the above, what else other than the UC540 do I need?  With Avaya you need the system, licences, then it seems like you need licences to use SIP Trunks and on some editions a per user licence etc.  Just trying to understand other than the physical UC540 what else do I need if anything to support the above?  Thanks so much.

[paolo bevilacqua]

You will need to hire an experienced professional to achieve sure and fast results for your configuration requirements. Nothing else is needed.

[leealanmoreau]

Thanks Paolo,

Just wanted to clarify, I'm not just some Joe that's trying to be cheap and save money by doing it himself   My background is in IT Management and I have implmented Asterisk systems for a few years now.  I own my own business and we are a Bell Canada Partner, so we sell Cisco, but normally the way it works is when we find a customer, we send their requirements to our IP Solutions team to generate a quote and assist, and they always do Avaya IP Office.  I prefer Cisco, but due to our partnership I'm able to purchase Cisco gear for 65% off directly, but I need to know the part #s I need and I don't get support etc so can't ask them for help all the time as it's not a sale for them.

I'm buying this more to learn from it to better sell it to customers, so def not expecting to just get it plug it in and have it all work.  Even if it takes me a month or two to make it fully operational I want this more for learning.  Having said that, I've read the CCA 3.2 manual and UC540 guides and there's nothing in there that has be super confused as it all sounds fairly standard.

When I was talking about configuring it from stores onine, I just meant that when you go to online stores that sell Avaya, it usually says 1) Pick your control unit 2) Pick your addons or additional calls 3) Pick your licence edition, etc, but when doing the same thing for Cisco other than pick the UC540 with FXO support or BRI support, it usualy then asks if you want to add more user licences but never asked about anything else so that's why I wanted to confirm.  I just didn't want to get this and then start setting it up and then find out I now need some $2000 licence to make it operational like with the Avaya gear.  Thanks again I really appreciate it.

[paolo bevilacqua]

I understand where you come from, but truly the learning curver for Cisco UC is quite steep, and the matter is vast. Also, CCA has many limitations, really professional configurations can only be done with CLI.

Consider, personally I do a lot of consultancy work for offical Cisco partners, as often is quite difficult to figure out things, and when in an hurry, you can't replace experience.

Anyway, hope you will like Cisco UC, and good luck.

[Albert Wilhelm · Accepted solution]

Hello Lee,

To help answer your questions, see my comments to your requirements:

- 3 IP phones located in the same office that the UC540 will be - Verify your phones are configured for SCCP, not SIP.

- 1 remote IP phone located at a users home - can be done using the SPA525G2 phone only or Cisco IP Communicator (soft phone)

- 1 SIP Trunk to our voip provider which supports 10 concurrent calls (most concurrent calls we'd ever have is prob 3-4 though) - can be done, use CCA 3.2 or above to configure your SIP Trunk provider. Dependent on on Internet upload speed and if using G.711 (80kbps per call outbound).

-  Of the users above some have multiple extensions, so we have in total  about 8 extensions some 3 digits some 4 (but if all have to be 4 it's  fine) - must specify 3 or 4 digit extension, no mixing. Would need additional clarity on the # of extension requirement or use case scenario.

- 2 main autoattendants as we have 2 companies that work  under us (so Company A's DID goes to 1 auto attendant, and Company B's  DID goes to another auto attendant)- can configure DIDs to map to different AAs.

- Then each auto attendant has a few sub ones which are minor, like after hours "Press 2 for our contact information" etc - can configure AA submenus for each AA.

-  The ability for users to have a soft phone or the communicator on their  PC so if they had to work from home they can make/receive calls from  their PC - can configure UC540 as VPN server to terminate remote users and launch CIPC.

- Each user extension needs voicemail - can configure VM or CFNA to another VM pilot number like group or to another extension,.

- Ability to easily have calls ring on desk phone and cell phone - configure each extension for Single Number Reach.

-  Ability to call from home using a cell phone through the UC540.  So  like DISA, calling into the UC540 getting a dial tone, calling an  external number and having the call go through the UC540 and show the  users extension making the call. - can only use CIPC or SPA525 phones to call. There is no application that will allow a mobile phone to register with the UC540.

Then  optionally call recording would be nice, as would a user portal to log  in and view call logs and so on but definitely not required. - UC540 has a call recording, but it is limited to the size of the extension's voice mail box. It is called Call Record and will only activate when the user invokes via their phone (there is a softkey that will invoke the feature). If you need additional requirements, there are 3rd party partners that provide extensive call recording  functions.

Be sure to verify the UC540 has software pack 8.2.0 or better. This will give you a license for 24 phones, additional features and support for CCA 3.2. Personally, I have configured the UC500 appliance since it first started shipping in the UC520 product - both in CLI and CCA 1.0. Both products have come a long way and CCA 3.2 will give you the best experience when configuring the UC540.

From a license perspective, the software pack will have everything you need. all licenses for phones, voice mail boxes, remote users, etc. is all included.

Hope this helps.

Bert Wilhelm

[leealanmoreau]

Thanks so much that's a huge help!!!!!  Answers everything I needed.  Just curious, does it have to be over VPN to do a remote extension?  Right now we have the 7960's flashed to SIP and they just connect back to the PBX over the Internet.  I know the SPA525 has VPN built in, but if we weren't using that phone and did need VPN, would a 7960 work if I had a Linksys router at the remote site creating a site to site VPN?  Or does it 100% have to be the CIPC or SPA525 only?

[Albert Wilhelm · Accepted solution]

Hello Lee,

The UC500 does support remote offices using site-to-site IPSec VPN. I have done this using a Cisco ISR 800/SR520 and ASA 5505 series products. The key is to make sure the DHCP Option 150 (used by the phones to download their respective phone loads) is configured for the UC500 TFTP server IP address. Also, make sure you have the route pointing down the VPN tunnel. 

The phones do need to be configured for SCCP and not SIP. My best practice is to configure the phones for the remote office at your main site, configure the extensions, validate the phones come up with the respective extensions and able to make/receive calls.Then verify from the remote office you are able ping the TFTP server. Install the phones and verify they come up with the proper extensions.

I personally do not recommend the Linksys router for site-to-site access especially with IP phones. I prefer the more robust products like the ASA or ISR series.

Here is a great article on teleworker best practices.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-22991

Hope this helps.

Bert

[leealanmoreau]

Great thanks so much.  I'm not very technical wth VPN, when I say site to site I guess I just meant those routers you see where you can connect to a VPN from within them, and then that way the 7960 would be able to access the UC540 like it was on the local network.  But I think getting the 525 for teleworkers is definitely less headache.

[Albert Wilhelm]

Hello Lee,

Sorry for the delay. Yes, you are correct regarding the site-to-site VPN. You just need to route the voice network and the CME/UE networks down the tunnel. It can be done but like I stated earlier, the ISR/ASA is a more robust solution than consumer/SMB routers.

If you only have one teleworker, the 525G2 is a good solution. Be sure to review the document referenced so you can avoid any issues.

Good luck with your Cisco partnership. A good resource to build your practice is the SMB Steps-to-Success.

All the best,

Bert Wilhelm